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Typescript Signed by Israel Regardie [To be used as a Press Release perhaps?]
19 Finsbury Park Road, Finsbury Park, N.4.
15 October 1930
The curious disappearance of Mr. Aleister Crowley—the celebrated Poet, Explorer and Magician, known to some as the Master Therion—opens a wide field of speculation as to what really occurred. As one who really knew the Magus, several hypotheses come to mind following the receipt of a message from Lisbon that he had mysteriously disappeared. Suicide! Murder! Ogpu! And last, that it was merely another of the ridiculous 'stunts' which have in the past earned him such an unspeakably vile reputation that it has been written of him that he is 'A Man we'd like to Hang'.
Yet certain developments within the last few days arouse innumerable doubts as to whether this is simply another attempt on his part to pull the leg of a gullible public, or whether he really has played his last stunt and departed to rejoin the Devil whose territorial emissary it is alleged, he most seriously acclaimed himself since he openly acknowledged the self-chosen title of 'THE BEAST 666'—the lover of "The Scarlet Woman" of whom we read in the Apocalypse.
In the B.U.P. report issued a fortnight ago, it was alleged that Crowley, while in Portugal, addressed a letter to Miss Hanni Jaeger, an acquaintance, leaving this letter with certain personal belongings on the rocks called 'Boco do Inferno' (The Mouth of the Inferno) not far from Lisbon—and from that day to this he has not been seen or heard from. Miss Jaeger, who is a young German artist of no mean attainments, has returned to Berlin distraught with mental anguish, believing him to have committed suicide. Overcome with grief, and being a believer in Spiritualism, she has requested me to obtain a message from the medium who contacted Conan Doyle's departed shade—in the hope of obtaining some last word of consolation and perhaps a clue to what occurred on those fatal rocks of the 'Boca Inferni'.
Furthermore, I have also heard from a friend in Berlin, that there is there extant a rumour that a luxurious studio maintained as a Berlin headquarters by Aleister Crowley has been raided by the German Police and there was discovered, what had long been suspected by many—Soviet Propaganda! Soviet plans of world Revolution and domination! Is this finally the secret of his fabulous wealth? May this not explain his disappearance, his suicide? The Ogpu?
I came to know and revere this remarkable man of genius because of prolonged personal contact, and having come under the influence of his intriguing sophistry and his delightful manner (I actually enrolled as a student in his co-called Black Magical Rites, employing the mystical signature of "The Serpent 358")—although his present end, if suicide it be, is hardly compatible with the philosophy he always preached (but then he always was a joker). I sought audience with a local medium, Mr. Alfred V. Peters, who was recommended to me by the Marylebone Spiritualist Association, in order to fulfill Miss Jaeger's request.
I made an appointment for Tuesday evening and, accompanied by a local journalist of repute, went to the house of Mr. Peters, who permitted the reporter to make copious notes of the communications as they came while the medium was 'under control'. (I might remark curiously that Crowley has written that students of Magick should avoid all Spiritualists as one should Syphilis.)
The communications came a little slowly at first. There were attempts at identification of the personality of Aleister Crowley which, I must say, were fairly close. Then prompted by questionings, Mr. Peter' guide disclosed the information that Crowley had probably been in Spain and Italy and went out for a walk into the country. He came to some cliffs against which rough waters were lashing—a fair identification of the coast of Portugal and the Bay of Biscay. He then proceeded to describe some peculiar crater, funnel-shaped, (this does seem like a description of the 'Boca da Inferno') into which Mr. Crowley had been violently pushed by enemies, presumably of Roman Catholic persuasion or with Free Masonic connections. Moreover he prophesied that the body would never be recovered; that it had been pushed into this crater, washed into the Bay of Biscany, and apparently carried out to see.
It is interesting, at least, to note that in the course of his troubled life, Crowley has made innumerable enemies in both these sects. Among the Roman Catholics, but his violent and frenzied attacks on Christianity; and among the Freemasons by publishing, in his former periodical, the Equinox, the rituals of a secret Rosicrucian Society, of which many powerful Masons were members. For this exposure of their secrets he was never forgiven. It is claimed by his friends, that his expulsion from Italy in 1922, and from France last year, were pre-eminently due to Roman Catholic influence. This is, naturally, pure speculation, but it is borne out most peculiarly by the reports of the medium.
The Portuguese police, nevertheless, confess themselves entirely puzzled by the disappearance, and I feel that they will continue to be so puzzled, for the dead body of Aleister Crowley will never be found.
Yet, although Aleister Crowley is gone, his work will live for ever. He was a writer of extraordinary strength, vitality, and versatility. His poems have stamped him as one of the greatest poets with which these Isles of Great Britain have been blessed. The English Review stated in 1912, that "Mr. Crowley is one of our few real poets. He has written things which will never die". The Occult Review declared that "Aleister Crowley is among the first of living English poets. It will not be many years before this fact is generally recognised and duly appreciated".
He has also written novels of no inconsiderable merit. His Diary of a Drug Fiend is a book which will provide discussion for several years to come. That it has been attacked by certain elements in the Press does not damage its value. His Magical Works are, naturally for a smaller circle of readers, but here too, he has written portions which will be referred to for many years—particularly with regard to the problem of the mind, and its training.
נחשh— 358.
I. Regardie
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